by Ben
30. March 2009 10:00
Will there ever be a worthy competitor to challenge Google’s dominance of search?
We have seen a few attempts to rock the boat, including Cuil, who claimed the size of their index would convert Google users.
But apparently, when it comes to search engines (as with so many other things), size doesn’t matter - it’s what you do with it that counts. It seems that Cuil just couldn’t provide users with a service rivalling Google's.
It is becoming apparent that in order to challenge Google, it may be a better idea to attack it side on, by doing search differently and being unique. Here’s our pick of search engines that offer an alternative approach to searching the web…
Aardvark
Ask a question and Aardvark sends it to your relevant friends as an instant message over MSN messenger, Google Talk and others.
Carrot2
Carrot2 is different because, after making a search, it offers categories that your search falls into, allowing you to refine and to quickly find what you’re looking for.
Kosmix
Search the web by a keyword or topic and get back multitudes of information gathered from across the web, including your normal Google results, a definition, video and audio results, and much more.
Powerset
Powerset searches Wikipedia, and while it displays the most relevant article to your search, it also cross references other articles in which your search term has been mentioned.
SiloBreaker
This news-hungry site compiles news articles and related information, including search trends, for your keywords.
Web.inSuggest
Enter a website, picture, or your del.icio.us bookmarks and get suggestions back of possible sites you might enjoy.